Using Music as Therapy as a Tool for Healing

History of Music Therapy

Researchers have finally discovered that using
music as therapy can be quite effective for healing.

We’ve long known
that music can be a soothing or stimulating influence.

It can make us
laugh, cry, feel energized or calmed, hyper or meditative, angry or
serene.

Music is something which taps deeply into our emotional core as
human beings.

Using music as a healing therapy is as old as the
days of Aristotle and Plato.

The earliest known reference to music as
therapy was an article written in 1789. In the early 1800’s articles
written on the therapeutic value of music were beginning to be written
in medical journals.

It wasn’t until the 1940’s that music as therapy
was to begin to be organized into a clinical profession.

In the United
States, using music for its healing powers began after both World War 1
and World War 2, when musicians of all types would visit the VA
hospitals to help ease the pain, monotony and loneliness that was
found there. There was much suffering going on in the hospitals, in the
form of physical as well as emotional traumas. The musicians were making
such an impact on the health of the veterans, that the doctors kept
requesting them to come back.

It still took a lot of hard work and
time until music therapy, in 1983, was seen as legitimate enough to
form a certification board. There are now over 5000 board certified
music therapists in this country, and growing all the time.

Music is now
a legitimate therapy to treat cognitive, emotional, physical and social
needs of people.

Music As Therapy for Healing and Growing

Music
helps those who cannot communicate, such as children and adults with
autism, to relate to others.

Music as therapy in the form of

dancing,

moving,

stretching,

singing,

humming,

banging on something,

listening with
headphones,

or meditating,

can all become an outlet for patients to express
their feelings.

The rhythmic movement to music can help develop
coordination, agility and balance.

Singing helps to develop memory and
social skills.

It has been proven that students learn quicker and absorb
information faster when allowed to listen to music they like.

Music as therapy has also been proven to improve behavior, decrease agitation,
increase attention, increase socialization and self expression, and
improve cognitive functioning.

Music Therapy for Infants

Think
about the way that a lullaby can soothe a child to sleep; they are also
soothing to adults who hear them.

A study published in the journal
Pediatrics in 2013 stated that music can be calming to both premature
infants and their parents.

In fact, it may also play a role in improving
the eating and sleeping routines of infants, as well as reducing the
stress that their parents are experiencing.

Music has been shown to help premature infants with weight gain and improve their sleeping patterns.

A
study was conducted at the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine
at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Researchers discovered that
music played in heartbeat rhythms and with a device which simulates the
sounds a baby might hear in the womb were effective at calming and
slowing the heart rates of infants, and also that the sound of their
parents singing a lullaby worked best of all.

Reducing Stress and Pain and other Symptoms

It’s
not just infants that music has this therapeutic effect on.

There is a
growing body of evidence that music can be beneficial for both physical
and mental health in adults.

Studies suggest that music can improve
immune function and reduce pre-surgical anxiety more effectively than
prescription medications.

Music can reduce our levels of cortisol, a
stress hormone, and even reduce pain, according to a 2013 study
published in the journal Progress In Palliative Care.

Music as
therapy has been shown to help older adults to reduce the effects of
dementia and Alzheimer’s.

It has been proven to be helpful to reduce
asthma episodes and reduce attacks.

Music has been shown to help those
with Parkinson’s diseases to improve their motor functioning abilities.

Dr
Oliver Sacks, whom the movie Awakenings was based on, researched,
studied and reported that patients with neurological disorders who
cannot talk or move are often able to sing and sometimes even dance, to
music.

He regarded “music therapy as a tool of great power in many
neurological disorders - Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s - because of it’s
unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral functions when it has
been damaged.”

Music can often provide an outlet to people who are
otherwise withdrawn.

Vibro-acoustic Therapy

Like all sound,
music is vibration.

The effects of these vibrations are being studied at
the University of Toronto, among others. Researchers are looking into
whether absorbing the vibrations of sound could be therapeutic for
patients suffering from depression, Parkinson’s disease and
fibromyalgia, among other conditions. The patients are exposed to ultra
low frequency sounds and so far, the results are promising. Parkinson’s
disease patients experienced reduced tremors, improved gait and less
rigidity.

According to University of Toronto researchers, some patients
with memory loss linked to neurological disease have experienced an
improvement in memory and mental clarity.

Clearly, music therapy
is making its way into the mainstream of western medicine, just as other
therapies once thought of as alternative.

It’s no secret
that music can do wonders for your mood, emotional balance and stress
levels – and the more we learn about the physiological effects of music
on the human body, the closer we come to the day when our physicians may
even prescribe an album or a concert rather than a medication for some
conditions.

Until then, you know what music makes you feel good – make it a part of your daily wellness routine!

*Nothing in this website is intended to diagnose, prescribe or substitute for medical or professional advice. This website is provided as a service, to help educate you on possible options for healing. You are encouraged to discuss your options with your own health care provider. AlternativeWaysToHeal.com is not responsible for any harm or loss caused by reliance on any information found on this site.